Sumo Fan Magazine

Brothers in Sumo –
part two
Brian Lewin
Brothers still active on the dohyo get their turn

Yokozuna Comparisons
Joe Kuroda
SFM’s most eminent historian, JK, has a crack at the impossible and tries to see who was the greatest of the tsuna wearers

Rikishi of Old
John Gunning
Takanobori – former sekiwake, former NHK man and all ’round gent

Heya Peek
Barbara Ann Klein
Kitanoumi-beya, Kitazakura, mirrors & photo bonanza

SFM Interview
John Gunning
Kazuyoshi Yoshikawa (son of the late sekiwake Takanobori) on life in sumo way back when

Sumo 101
Barbara Ann Klein
Behind every good man there stands a good woman – read and ye shall see. A departure from our regular 101 feature

Photo Bonanza
See the Hatsu Basho
plus much more through the lens of our photographers

Hatsu Basho Review
Lon Howard
Lon gives us his Hatsu Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results

Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila
Mikko Mattila covers lower division goings on in detail

Haru Basho Forecast
Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton
Pierre predicts the Haru Basho banzuke while Mark highlights the ones to look out for in Osaka

Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Mikko takes us on a tour of his chosen kimarite

Minusha
John McTague
John’s unique bimonthly view of sumo news from outside the dohyo and in the restaurants!

Online Gaming
Alexander Nitschke
SFM’s own Alexander Nitschke covers the long running Hoshitori Game

Kokugi Connections
Todd Lambert
Todd’s bimonthly focus on 3 of the most interesting sumo sites today

Fan Debate
Feb's debate sees
a pair of Kiwis exchanging opinions on the honbasho going on the road

SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In the third of our cartoon bonanzas, sit back and enjoy BL’s offerings and put a caption to ST’s pic to win yourselves a banzuke

Let’s Hear From You
What was it that
made you a sumo fan? A unique perspective from a sightless reader.

Readers’ Letters
See what some SFM
readers had to say since our last issue

Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.

Henka Sightings Summary

by Lon Howard

nominated, so very roughly, about 5 per cent of all bouts have resulted in a validated henka. To look at it another way, that’s about 1 henka per day.

So who are the major perpetrators thus far? Here are the top 11, listed in order of the percentage of their bouts henka’d (i.e. Kyokushuzan and Shunketsu have henka’d in 13 per cent of their actual bouts on the dohyo from Nagoya through Hatsu). To keep things in perspective, even though they’re
tied for the top ten, Kotomitsuki and Kyokutenho 5 per cent henka rates make them only average, not major perpetrators.

Kyokushuzan	13
Shunketsu	13
Wakatoba	11
Takanowaka	10
Roho	9
Hakurozan	7
Hokutoriki	7
Kasugao	7
Toyozakura	7
Kotomitsuki	5
Kyokutenho	5

Kyokushuzan monumentally skewed his numbers last time out. Before that, he had been credited with just one henka but was nominated 7 times during

Next

I was going to wait until after a full year of Henka Sightings data was available before publishing anything in-depth but there is at least one developing trend that caught my eye and I thought I would share it with you. There will surely be others as more data is collected, but here’s what we have so far, after only four basho.

There is, of course, a cadre of fans, having no issue with the henka, who question why Henka Sightings exists. Well, it doesn’t exist to bash the henka or the rikishi who employ it – not at all. Love it or loathe it, fans dig up the henka and work it over every basho as if it were the central issue in a political campaign, and like partisan politicians, often can’t find agreement on any aspect. We disagree on the ‘values’ it represents, on whether there are such things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ henkas, and even on what a henka is, or is not. Sometimes fans get personal and rail on each other because of opposing opinions about the henka, and amazingly, we even argue about what the ‘mainstream’ view of

henka is. Quite political-ish at times, and since the issue is always on stage, as reporters, we thought we’d see if it was possible, if only in small part, to quantify something so inflammatory, and yet so elusive to the senses. Along the way, if somebody had some fun with it – well, even the most taciturn rikishi is sometimes known to crack a smile, so why not lighten up and smell the bintsuke?

First, a brief summary – then on to the good stuff.

A reminder: since I can’t watch the juryo action from the U.S., this study only includes makuuchi bouts – practically speaking, even if I could see them, I wouldn’t have the time.

A total of 143 bouts have been nominated for fans to vote yea or nay on, and 68 of those received at least a majority yes
vote – that’s nearly half. Again, I am very liberal here – I’ll nominate almost anything that looks the least bit ‘funny.’ So far, about 11 per cent of all bouts in these four basho have been